Dinwiddie jokes he’s got ‘a certain level of happiness’ at Mavs missing playoffs after trading him

Spencer Dinwiddie has admitted he got some joy from seeing the Mavs miss the playoffs after Dallas traded him to Brooklyn in February.

Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and three picks (including a 2029 first-rounder) were sent to Brooklyn at the deadline for Kyrie Irving as Dallas looked to build a supercharged backcourt built to contend in the playoffs.

However, the move went horribly wrong, with the team going 9-18 after acquiring the ex-Nets guard and missing the postseason in the process.

Meanwhile, Dinwiddie helped a new-look Nets team hold onto the No. 6 seed in the East.

And it’s not lost on him that the Mavs are at home while Brooklyn prepares to take on the Sixers in the first round this weekend. 

Spencer Dinwiddie made the admission about his ex-team on FanDuel TV Wednesday

The Mavs trade for Kyrie Irving coincided with them tanking in the standings afterwards

‘I ain’t gon’ lie, there’s a certain level of happiness from the pettier side of my psyche,’ Dinwiddie said on FanDuelTV’s ‘Run it Back’ on Wednesday. 

‘They’re my friends though, so I didn’t want to see it go down like that,’ Dinwiddie said. ‘On the other side — Theo [Pinson], [Reggie] Bullock, Luka, all those guys, JaVale [McGee] — we went to war together. 

‘They’re a playoff caliber team. Obviously they had their mishaps and things that didn’t allow them to see the postseason.’

‘Overall, I wanted them to do well but there is that little piece that I ain’t gon’ lie, I am a little bit happy,’ Dinwiddie said.

While Irving brought his silky scoring ability to Texas, the team suffered on defense after he joined.

Dinwiddie has played well since joining the Nets for a second stint in February

The Mavs posted the fifth-worst defensive rating (120.0) in the league since Irving’s debut, although he missed seven total games after first appearing for the team. Irving is a free agent this offseason but the Mavs are optimistic they’ll be able to re-sign him.

The Nets went just 11-13 after the All-Star Break after losing Kevin Durant and Irving in separate trades, but scraped their way to the playoffs despite losing streaks of four and five games towards the end of the season.

Dinwiddie himself has averaged 16.5 points and 9.1 assists during his second stint in Brooklyn, and he ruffled even more feathers on Wednesday with his comments about ex-teammate Kyle Kuzma.   

Dinwiddie criticized Kuzma’s professionalism in response to a January tweet saying the Mavs didn’t play ‘winning basketball,’ and the Washington forward responded with an aggressive six-point thread about the guard.